Game Day Game Day: Crows v Pear, Round 8 2024

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arrowman

Brownlow Medallist
Jul 27, 2004
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Adelaide
AFL Club
Adelaide
I can't believe there's no GD thread yet!

Dan Curtin debut.
Matt Crouch 150.
Rory Sloane send off.

Let's GOOOO!
 

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Wait... we didn't play well last week just to get our hopes up did we? And are going to revert to slow, sideways chip or useless bomb football and lose pathetically? With a late, futile rally in Q4?

Right...?
 
Dan Curtin debut.
Matt Crouch 150.
Rory Sloane send off.
Good reasons (above) and more to win this one well.
However, it's the Crows :sadv1:.

This is the kind of game under Nicks where all of the pre-game portents indicate a win is on the cards, especially with PA injuries (GrubPepper and Aliir),
ie a game the Crows should win but, you know, Crows/Nicks :grimacing:/:drunk:.

Don't get me wrong; I'd love it if we belted them, in fact I'd take any win but the last 4-and-a-bit years have worn me down not to expect too much.
It's going to depend upon:
--- the players' mindset (whether they play run-on-overlap attacking footy or Nicks' defensive garbage game)
--- how they start
--- not dropping off when ahead.

HOPE: a win, any win, and a strong game from Curtin.
 
Will Hinkley or Carr be coaching this one? Or is that only determined after the game?
Ken apparently only left Finlayson out because the crowd will boo him too much... never mind that they would then be playing 4 tall forwards and Sweet. They just don't have much depth in the small/medium forward area with SPP out. It is an average list outside of the midfield.

Burton maybe plays on Tex? I'm sure he might hate us genuinely after tonight
 

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After everything points towards a real opportunity to win it, I think port get up. We will leak too many goals and port after being inaccurate will kick straight all night. Port by 22. 😞
 
The Pear are clear favourites with the bookies and deservedly so. Their form is a bit patchy but we are playing like a 1970s Datsun, running on three cylinders.

They have three best-22 players missing, Soldo, Aliir and PP. I rate Sweet higher than Soldo but clearly Kern doesn’t.
We have four best-22 players missing, Murray, Milera, Thilthorpe and Pedlar.

I prefer our forwards to their forwards and our defenders to their defenders. They clearly have the edge in the midfield. I expect Rozee to play and play well (soo brave). It seems like he just had a cramp in the hammy last week and pulled a Dangerfield. Rather than admitting they were a bit cautious last week, they prefer to go with the soo brave theme.

I have tipped Poort by a point but I hope I have been 2 points too generous to them.

If we continue with our 3 cylinder game plan we could be smashed
 
This one has the smell of Adelaide getting pummeled.

A showdown, paired with Rorys retirement announcement (which I assume was planned weeks ago) and Matt Crouch 150th? Seems like we've made too big of a deal about this one and the football gods tend to punish that hubris in big matches.
 
This one has the smell of Adelaide getting pummeled.

A showdown, paired with Rorys retirement announcement (which I assume was planned weeks ago) and Matt Crouch 150th? Seems like we've made too big of a deal about this one and the football gods tend to punish that hubris in big matches.
Yeah...as soon as I saw it was Crouch's 150th, I shuddered! We are terrible in milestone games. I cannot recall the last time we won one (anyone got the stats on that?). That said...I predicted before last week's game that we'd get our season on track with a win over Nth and we'd get over the line against Port as well.
 
Yeah...as soon as I saw it was Crouch's 150th, I shuddered! We are terrible in milestone games. I cannot recall the last time we won one (anyone got the stats on that?). That said...I predicted before last week's game that we'd get our season on track with a win over Nth and we'd get over the line against Port as well.

I do think that's a survivorship bias thing, seeing the genuinely memorable milestone games are the ones that are stuffed up. I.e. we're 1-2 in milestone games this year with us winning in Hinge's 50th (against North) and losing Smiths 250th (Fremantle) and Murphy's 100th (Geelong).

That said, combined with Sloane retirement, it's got serious potential that we've made this game more than it is. After all, Sloane retirement isn't going to mean the players are up to it here - they already were, seeing it's a showdown and the biggest game they'll play for the next few months. It's just going to add to the mental fatigue by making a big week bigger. Typically, the team who has done well in games like the Showdown have been the one that's managed to keep their cool, treat it like another week and not let it get too big on them. Port fell for that trap recently with their forced "We hate them and would love to beat them" quotes. We've fallen into it in the past with our SA state jumper stunt being a great example.
 
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